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Bosko the Doughboy
Bosko the Doughboy is a 1931 Looney Tunes short directed by Hugh Harman. Plot Explosions kill several animals fighting in the trenches during World War I. Bosko is eating when enemy fire destroys his meal. He grabs a piece of cheese from a mousetrap and continues eating. He sighs as more explosions rain down rubble on him. He pulls a picture of Honey out of his shorts and kisses it, then a bullet tears right through her face. He vows revenge but when he tries to climb out of the trench he is pushed back by a barrage of gunfire. A horse who is a fellow soldier plays his harmonica and the two begin to dance. A third soldier, a dog, is trying to sleep but a flea bites him. He scratches and scratches but just can't reach the flea. Bosko grabs the dog's helmet and holds it up in the air while enemy bullets punch jagged holes in it. Then he hands it back to the thankful dog, who uses it to scratch his back. Bosko sees a mouse piloting a pelican dropping bombs on them, so he uses the dog as a slingshot to shoot the pelican down. While trying to capture a machine gun nest, in an actual birds' nest, a friendly hippopotamus swallows a bomb. Bosko ties a white union suit to a pole as a truce flag so he can help the hippo, but another bomb flies inside of it. The union suit then walks over, opens its trap door, and dumps the bomb next to the cannon, blowing it up. Bosko saves the hippo by unzipping his navel and taking out the bomb. It explodes in Bosko's face and he exclaims "Mammy!" like Al Jolson. Notes * Bosko the Doughboy is notable for its different type of tone that isn't seen from most of the other Bosko cartoons around this era, since whereas in most other Bosko cartoons, which shows Bosko infallibly happy and chipper or concentrate primarily on Bosko cavorting with other characters in a musical wonderland and most generally have little to no conflict, with this cartoon however, Bosko forces him to drop this demeanor and fight back, as well as Bosko not even dancing for more than a few seconds before coming under enemy fire, and this cartoon is basically nothing but fighting throughout most of the cartoon. * As such, Bosko the Doughboy is almost a total departure from other shorts in the series (and from those of other studios of the time), and it's usually regarded as a high point of the character's cartoon career. Availability * (2008) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6, Disc 2 Gallery Bosko the Doughboy.jpg Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:1931 Category:Shorts Category:Black-and-white cartoons Category:Bosko Cartoons Category:Cartoons directed by Hugh Harman Category:Cartoons animated by Rollin Hamilton Category:Cartoons with music by Frank Marsales Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Cartoons produced by Hugh Harman Category:Cartoons produced by Rudolf Ising Category:Cartoons in the Sunset Productions package Category:Public domain films Category:Cartoons with film editing by Bernard B. Brown